Suddenly Engaged (A Lake Haven Novel Book 3)(3)

By: Julia London

A moment later, Josh was on the phone. “For God’s sake, Kyra,” he said impatiently. “What are you not getting? When a guy doesn’t respond to your calls or your texts, it means he—”

“I know what it means, Josh,” she said, cutting him off before he could utter the indelible I’m not that into you. She knew what was up, even if there was a tiny part of her hoping that maybe he’d lost his phone or had been hit by a bus and had been in the hospital all this time. How could she have been so wrong about their connection? “What part of important do you not get?” she shot back. “I wouldn’t have called you at work if you had just responded to a text or two.”

He sighed. “Look, Kyra, we had a great time in Puerto Vallarta. Fantastic. But this is—”

“I have to tell you something, Josh,” she said angrily. She was suddenly shaking. As in might-pass-out shaking. She sat down on a bench. “I’m pregnant.”

That was met with silence. Cold, hard, empty silence. And then, “Is it mine?”

“What? Yes, it’s yours! What do you think?”

“How can you be sure?” he asked, sounding a little frantic.

“Are you kidding me right now? For one, I can count. For two—”

“Kyra—you have to get rid of it.”

Kyra didn’t know what she’d expected him to say, but it definitely wasn’t that. There was no how are you feeling, or what do you want to do, or let’s meet to talk. Just a very firm get rid of it, spoken so decisively that it made her stomach twist.

“Look, there is something I didn’t tell you in Puerto Vallarta,” he said, his voice low.

Now Kyra’s stomach fell to her toes. She instantly assumed disease or drugs or something that meant she was carrying a mutant in her. “Oh my God, what is it?”

“I’m getting married in a couple of months.”

Those words didn’t register at first—they confused her. “You already met someone?” she asked. It had been six weeks. How had he met someone, proposed, and already set a date? Was that even possible?

“Yeah. I mean, a long time ago. This wedding . . . it’s been planned for a while.”

The fog of confusion began to lift from her brain. The asshole had been engaged while he was hitting on her in Puerto Vallarta. “But you were sleeping with me.”

“Only twice.”

“Only twice?” she shouted into the phone. “Like that makes it okay? When does it become not okay, Josh? Three times? Four times? What kind of douche are you?”

“Jesus, don’t freak out, Kyra.”

“Too late! I’m freaking out! I don’t sleep with guys who are with other women, Josh! I don’t help guys cheat! Oh my God, I don’t believe you—I honestly thought we had something,” she said, railing at herself for being so dumb. “We had so much fun, and I thought it could be real, and you gave me every reason to believe it could be real, and you said you’d pull out, and then you didn’t! Did everyone know?”

“That I’m engaged? No, no,” he said, sounding miserable about it. “I haven’t seen Mark in a while. He sent me an invitation with a plus one, and I . . . I figured it was one last good time before I got married. So I didn’t mention it.”

“That’s insane! Who does that?” she exclaimed. That’s how blind she was—she had never once considered that he wasn’t being entirely truthful with her.

“Stop shouting! Where are you, anyway?”

“Honest to God, have I learned nothing?” Kyra exclaimed to the sky, ignoring the woman who pulled her son closer as they hurried by. “All the sex education in the world, and still I had unprotected sex!”

A man passing by gave her a sharp look.

“Don’t judge me,” Kyra snapped at him. “You had to be there!”

“Who the hell are you talking to?” Josh asked, sounding worried now. “Will you please calm down? I know, that was wrong, and I regret it, but it was great, and you were great, and it felt good, and I just . . . I just sort of lost myself,” he said.

“Great,” she said. “You just sort of lost yourself and now I’m pregnant.” By Josh, the guy who was engaged, who just sort of lost himself.